In his famous Aug. 15, 2013 interview with President Richard Brodhead, Stephen Colbert noted that by majoring in English, President Brodhead “went for the big cash.” The prospect of having it both ways—reading books and pondering the meaning of life on the one hand, and making oodles of money on the other—should appeal to Duke’s ambitious, smart students as they go about planning their course of study.
The humanities have been in the news a lot lately. A quick reminder: The humanities include not only English, but also other areas of inquiry that explore human culture, language and thought. These include philosophy, history, religion, languages, anthropology, literature—especially Russian literature—and the arts. All of these subjects are taught at Duke. Studying them, we are told, broadens the mind, increases our powers of perception and expression and makes us more thoughtful, engaged citizens. It is exciting to find ourselves at the epicenter of the national struggle for the humanities, what with the Colbert interview, President Brodhead’s address on the subject to the annual meeting of the Duke faculty last March and our big “Humanities Writ Large” Mellen grant. Indeed, a humanities major may be particularly useful in these troubled times, especially by increasing the brain power needed to make sense of what is turning out to be a confusing political season in North Carolina.
In January, Gov. Pat McCrory launched an attack on the liberal arts, arguing that the purpose of higher education is exclusively to train people for jobs. To that end, he proposed to change the formula for funding education “not based upon how many butts in seats, but how many of those butts can get jobs.” This policy comes as part of a broader strategy to reduce costs in state government by cutting funds for primary and secondary education, unemployment compensation and many more “human services” in the state. On March 8, Gov. McCrory directed state agencies to freeze salary increases. The average starting salary for a public school teacher with only a Bachelor’s degree in the state, for example, is $30,800 (46th in the country after an earlier salary freeze instituted in 2008).
Such a policy would seem to signal doom and gloom to students of the humanities. Yet, based on current events, the most promising major in North Carolina for the butts currently occupying seats here at Duke may very well turn out to be English. To answer Colbert’s query to our President about the salary associated with a career in literary criticism: On Aug.16, 2013, the Raleigh News and Observer reported that two 24-year-old recent college graduates have landed senior-level jobs in Gov. McCrory’s administration. Matthew McKillip’s brand-new English degree from Georgetown University earned his butt a $87,500 seat as Chief Policy Advisor to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Aldona Wos (including, in spite of the governor’s well-publicized freeze on state salaries, a 35 percent pay raise after a mere three months of service). On the other hand, Ricky Diaz, an East Asian studies and economics graduate of Vanderbilt University, was appointed as the Department of Health and Human Services’ Communications Director, a position that pays $85,000 annually. In perspective, the average salary for the other 700 24-year-old North Carolina state employees is $30,163. Even a longtime Russian literature professor at Duke makes well under $85,000. The News and Observer pointed out last week that Diaz’s and McKillip’s salaries significantly exceed the published guidelines for these positions, that the job openings were not publically announced, that there is no record that any other candidates were considered and that in neither case do the appointees’ qualifications match the jobs’ minimal qualifications. In spite of his eloquent job title, Communications Director Diaz has yet to provide any public comment on the matter.
I’ve been studying Russian literature for a really long time, and if anyone understands irrationality, venality and governmental corruption, it’s the Russians. Even Tolstoy, though, can’t help me understand the forces at work here. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that both of these new public servants worked for Gov. McCrory’s 2012 political campaign. Whatever the reasons, I’ll suppress some of my own baser instincts and take their meteoric rise in state government as a ringing endorsement of the humanities.
Carol Apollonio is a professor of the practice in Slavic and Eurasian studies. Her column runs every other Tuesday. Send Professor Apollonio a message on Twitter @flath3.
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